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 Australia's central bank has raised its benchmark interest rate by a quarter-point to 3.1% as it continues trying to wrestle down inflation. The increase was the bank's eighth in a row and took the rate to its highest level in 10 years. Still, Australia's rate hikes have remained relatively modest and its key rate remains lower than in many other countries including the United States, where the Federal Reserve has raised its key interest rate to a range of 3.75% to 4%. Reserve Bank of Australia Governor Philip Lowe said inflation remained too high at 6.9%. That's well above the bank's target inflation rate of between 2% and 3%. “Global factors explain much of this high inflation, but strong domestic demand relative to the ability of the economy to meet that demand is also playing a ro...

The big reveal for the new B-21 Raider stealth bomber finally took place Friday night in a glitzy unveiling worthy of a Hollywood production as the aircraft was rolled out of a California hangar, but every effort was made to ensure that details about the new aircraft will continue to remain shrouded in secrecy. Taking place under the cover of night, the plane emerged slowly from the hangar bathed in dramatic blue lighting that did not reveal much beyond the plane's similar shape to the B-2 stealth bomber it is intended to replace. U.S. Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin was among the 600 VIP's and 2,000 Northrop Grumman employees, who have worked on the new bomber for the past seven years, on hand for the big reveal at Northrop Grumman's Plant 42 in Palmdale, California. "The B-21 looks imp...

A FedEx driver confessed to abducting and killing 7-year-old Athena Strand after he delivered a package to her family's home, Wise County Sheriff Lane Akin said at a press conference Friday night. Police found Strand's body southeast of Boyd, Texas. Digital evidence and interviews lead investigators to believe that Strand died within an hour of her abduction, according to Akin. Tanner Lynn Horner is shown in this booking photo. Wise County Sheriff's Office The driver, 31-year-old Taner Lynn Horner, is in jail and is being charged with capital murder and aggravated kidnapping. Horner, who is a resident of Lake Worth, is being held on a $1.5 million bond, according to Akin. In this screen grab from a video, caution tape is shown during the search for Athena S...

NATO member and Russia’s neighbor Estonia is boosting its defense capabilities by acquiring an advanced U.S. rocket artillery system in the Baltic country’s largest arms procurement project ever, defense officials said Saturday. The deal signed Friday for the High Mobility Artillery Rocket System is worth more than $200 million and includes equipment such as ammunition and rockets, as well as training. The package includes HIMARS rockets with ranges of 70-300 kilometers (43-186 miles), the Estonian Center for Defense Investment said in a statement. Lockheed Martin Corp. is expected to make the first deliveries in 2024. Estonian officials didn’t disclose the number of rocket launchers but local media outlets said the purchase consists of six HIMARS. "The HIMARS multiple rocket launchers ...

 A strong earthquake shook parts of Indonesia’s main island of Java on Saturday, causing panic but only minor damage just two weeks after an equally powerful quake killed hundreds. The U.S. Geological Survey said the magnitude 5.7 quake was centered about 18 kilometers (11 miles) southeast of Banjar, a city between West Java and Central Java provinces, at a depth of 112 kilometers (70 miles). One resident was injured in Selaawi village of West Java's Garut district, and at least four houses and a school were damaged, said Suharyanto, the National Disaster Management Agency head who goes by a single name. He said authorities were still collecting information about the damage. A magnitude 5.6 earthquake on Nov. 21 killed at least 331 people and injured nearly 600 in West Java’s Cianjur ci...

Russian authorities rejected a price cap on the country's oil set by Ukraine’s Western supporters and threatened Saturday to stop supplying the nations that endorsed it. Australia, Britain, Canada, Japan, the United States and the 27-nation European Union agreed Friday to cap what they would pay for Russian oil at $60-per-barrel. The limit is set to take effect Monday, along with an EU embargo on Russian oil shipped by sea. Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said Russia needed to analyze the situation before deciding on a specific response but that it would not accept the price ceiling. Russia's permanent representative to international organizations in Vienna, Mikhail Ulyanov, warned that the cap's European backers would come to rue their decision. “From this year, Europe will live withou...